Tag: Evacuations

Residents of Iceland town evacuated over volcano told it will be months before they can go home

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People in southwest Iceland are on edge, waiting to see whether a volcano rumbling under the Reykjanes peninsula will erupt

ByThe Associated Press

November 18, 2023, 9:15 AM

This image taken with a drone shows cracks on the road next to a church in the town of Grindavik, Iceland, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. Residents of a fishing town in southwestern Iceland have left their homes after increasing concern about a potential volcanic eruption caused civil defense authorities to declare a state of emergency in the region. Iceland’s Meteorological Office says police decided to evacuate Grindavik after recent seismic activity in the area moved south toward the town. (AP Photo/Bjorn Steinbekk)

The Associated Press

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — People in southwest Iceland remained on edge Saturday, waiting to see whether a volcano rumbling under the Reykjanes Peninsula will erupt. Civil protection authorities said that even if it doesn’t, it’s likely to be months before it is safe for residents evacuated from the danger zone to go home.

The fishing town of Grindavik was evacuated a week ago as magma – semi-molten rock – rumbled and snaked under the earth amid thousands of tremors. It has left a jagged crack running through the community, thrusting the ground upward by 1 meter (3 feet) or more in places.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said there is a “significant likelihood” that an eruption will occur somewhere along the 15-kilometer (9-mile) magma tunnel, with the “prime location” an area north of Grindavik near the Hagafell mountain.

Grindavik, a town of 3,400, sits on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik and not far from Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s main facility for international flights. The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal resort, one of Iceland’s top tourist attractions, has been shut at least until the end of November because of the volcano danger.

Grindavik residents are being allowed to return for five minutes each to rescue valuable possessions and pets.

A volcanic system on the Reykjanes Peninsula has erupted three times since 2021, after being dormant for 800 years. Previous eruptions occurred in remote valleys without causing damage.

Iceland sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic and averages an eruption every four to five years. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and grounded flights across Europe for days because of fears ash could damage airplane engines.

Scientists say a new eruption would likely produce lava but not an ash cloud.

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November 18, 2023
Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital and people trapped inside say they cannot flee

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KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate Sunday, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed urgent international calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war.

A day after Netanyahu said Israel was bringing its “full force” with the aim of ending Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling, including around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.

“They are outside, not far from the gates,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident sheltering at the facility.

The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry. It said another 36 babies are at risk of dying.

Israel’s military asserted it placed 300 liters (634 pints) of fuel near Shifa overnight for an emergency generator for incubators for premature babies and coordinated the delivery with hospital officials. “Sadly, they haven’t taken the fuel yet,” spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. He said if this fuel doesn’t work, they will seek “other solutions for the babies.”

A Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, told Al Jazeera that “someone contacted the director and said they have 200 liters of fuel. These 200 liters give less than an hour to run the generator. … This is a mockery towards the patients and children.”

Speaking to CNN, Netanyahu asserted that “100 or so” people had been evacuated from Shifa and that Israel had created safe corridors.

But Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said Israeli snipers have deployed around Shifa, firing at any movement inside the compound. He said airstrikes had destroyed several homes next to the hospital, killing three people, including a doctor.

“There are wounded in the house, and we can’t reach them,” he told Al Jazeera. “We can’t stick our heads out of the window.”

The military said troops would assist in moving babies on Sunday. But Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity that has supported Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit for years, questioned that. “The transfer of critically ill neonates is a complex and technical process,” CEO Melanie Ward said in a statement. “With ambulances unable to reach the hospital … and no hospital with capacity to receive them, there is no indication of how this can be done safely.”

The only safe option is for Israel to stop its assault and allow fuel to reach the hospital, Ward said.

The Health Ministry said there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds, is “no longer operational” because it has run out of fuel with 6,000 people trapped there. Gaza’s sole power plant was forced to shut down a month ago, and Israel has barred fuel imports, saying Hamas would use them for military purposes.

One woman fleeing northern Gaza, Fedaa Shangan, said she’d had a cesarean section at Al-Quds: “The wound is still fresh.” She said the Israeli army near the hospital “did not care about the presence of patients, children, women and the elderly. They did not care about anyone.”

Alarm was growing. “We do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, people seeking medical care are caught in the crossfire,” President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told ABC’s “This Week.”

“Decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian cease-fire and prevent further loss of life” amid attacks on health care, the U.N. regional directors of the World Health Organization and others said in a statement, adding that more than half of Gaza’s hospitals are closed.

Muhammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza, said the Health Ministry has been unable to update the death toll since Friday as medics are unable to reach areas hit by Israeli bombardment. “The situation is extremely dire,” he said.

About 2.3 million Palestinians remain trapped in the besieged territory.

Netanyahu has said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas. Israel has long accused the group, which operates in dense residential neighborhoods, of using civilians as human shields.

The U.S. has pushed for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory, where conditions are increasingly dire.

But Israel has only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians can flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along two main roads. Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets across southern Gaza, often killing women and children.

Dozens of wounded people, including children, were brought to a hospital in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike demolished a building in the southern town. Hospital officials said at least 13 were killed.

The war has displaced over two-thirds of Gaza’s population, with most fleeing south. Egypt has allowed hundreds of foreign passport holders and medical patients to exit through its Rafah crossing, as well as the entry of a small amount of humanitarian aid.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X, formerly Twitter, that he asked European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to apply the same “legal, moral grounds” for EU support of Ukraine to “define its stand on Israel’s war crimes.”

More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are thought to be trapped or dead under the rubble.

At least 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack. Forty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.

About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza, where Palestinian militants are still firing barrages of rockets, and along the northern border with Lebanon.

Netanyahu has begun to outline Israel’s postwar plans for Gaza, which contrast sharply with the vision put forth by the United States.

On Saturday, he said Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain the ability to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants. He rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would at some stage control Gaza. Hamas drove the PA’s forces out of Gaza in 2007.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the U.S. opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward a Palestinian state. Even before the war, Netanyahu’s government was staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood.

The war threatens to trigger a wider conflict, with Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon frequently trading fire along the border. Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles into Israel on Sunday, and Israel responded with artillery and fighter jets.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Paris on Sunday to protest against rising antisemitism. And in Tel Aviv, several hundred women gathered seeking the return of the hostages taken by Hamas.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

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November 12, 2023
15 UN peacekeepers in a convoy withdrawing from northern Mali were injured by 2 explosive devices

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UNITED NATIONS — Fifteen U.N. peacekeepers in a convoy withdrawing from a rebel stronghold in northern Mali were injured when vehicles hit improvised explosive devices on two occasions this week, the United Nations said Friday.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said eight peacekeepers injured Wednesday were evacuated by air and “are now reported to be in stable condition.”

He said seven peacekeepers injured by an IED early Friday also were evacuated by air. He did not give their conditions.

Dujarric said the peacekeepers, who were withdrawing weeks earlier than planned because of growing insecurity, suffered two other IED attacks after leaving their base in Kidal on Oct. 31.

JNIM, an extremist group with links to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the earlier attacks, in which at least two peacekeepers were injured.

Dujarric said the U.N. doesn’t know if the IEDs that hit the convoy had been there for a long time or whether the peacekeepers were deliberately targeted. The convoy is heading to Gao on the east bank of the Niger River, and “it’s clear what road they will use,” he said.

He said the U.N. hoped the convoy would complete the estimated 350-kilometer (220-mile) journey to Gao, a staging point for peacekeeping departures, by the end of the weekend.

In June, Mali’s military junta, which overthrew the democratically elected president in 2021, ordered the nearly 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force known as MINUSMA to leave after a decade of working on stemming a jihadi insurgency.

The U.N. Security Council terminated the mission’s mandate June 30 and the U.N. is in the throes of what Secretary-General António Guterres calls an “unprecedented” six-month exit from Mali by Dec. 31.

MINUSMA was one of the most dangerous U.N. peacekeeping operations in the world, with more than 300 members killed since operations began in 2013.

About 850 U.N. peacekeepers had been based in Kidal along with 150 other mission personnel. An employee with MINUSMA earlier told The Associated Press that the peacekeepers left Kidal in convoys after Mali’s junta refused to authorize flights to repatriate U.N. equipment and civilian personnel.

Although noting the junta allowed the medical evacuation flights, Dujarric said, “We’re not operating as many flights as we should be able to operate in order to up the safety of our peacekeepers who are moving on the ground.”

After the convoy left Kidal the town was taken over by ethnic Tuareg rebels, who have been clashing with Mali’s military. The spike in those clashes prompted the U.N. to move up its departure from Kidal, once planned for mid-November.

Analysts say the violence signals the breakdown of a 2015 peace agreement between the government and the rebels. That deal was signed after Tuareg rebels drove security forces out of northern Mali in 2012 as they sought to create an independent state they call Azawad.

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November 3, 2023
Rep. Bowman of New York charged with misdemeanor, to pay fine after triggering House fire alarm

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WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman was charged Wednesday with a misdemeanor for triggering a fire alarm as lawmakers scrambled to pass a funding bill before a government shutdown deadline in September.

He is expected to plead guilty, formally apologize and pay a $1,000 fine. The false fire alarm charge would then be dropped if he successfully completes 3 months of probation.

The alarm forced the evacuation of a House office building for over an hour. The New York lawmaker has acknowledged pulling the alarm and said it was a mistake. He was in a rush to go to vote, tried to go through a door that was unexpectedly closed and wrongly thought pulling the fire alarm lever would help him open it, he said.

At the time of the evacuation, House Democrats were working to delay a vote on a funding bill to keep federal agencies open. They had said they needed time to review a bill that Republicans abruptly released to avoid a shutdown. The funding package was ultimately approved with most Republicans and almost all Democrats, including Bowman, supporting the bill.

Republicans criticized Bowman after the alarm, and on Wednesday introduced a motion to censure him. Rep. Bryan Steil, the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, referred the case to Capitol police. He called Bowman’s explanation an “excuse.”

He pointed out that Bowman passed several police officers after pulling the alarm without alerting them about it. Bowman, for his part, has said he was urgently trying to get to the vote and said Republicans would “attempt to distract everyone” with the case.

Prosecutors said Bowman was “treated like anyone else who violates the law” and has agreed to pay the maximum fine, according to a spokesperson for the District of Columbia attorney general’s office.

Bowman told police at the time he didn’t mean to disrupt any congressional proceeding, according to court documents. He said he didn’t immediately tell anyone about the alarm going off because he was in a hurry to vote.

Under an agreement with the D.C. attorney general, the charge will be withdrawn in three months if the congressman provides a formal apology to Capitol police and pays a $1,000 fine.

Bowman said he was grateful for the quick resolution in the case, and looking forward to putting it behind him. “I am responsible for activating a fire alarm, I will be paying the fine issued, and look forward to these charges being ultimately dropped,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

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October 25, 2023
Two weeks ago she was thriving. Now, a middle-class mom in Gaza struggles to survive

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KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Yousra Abu Sharekh’s days begin in the southern Gaza Strip often after sleepless nights amid blaring ambulance sirens and the clamor of neighbors in the brief pause between relentless Israeli airstrikes.

By daybreak, the 33-year-old mother is on the hunt for bread, lining up for hours at bakeries to buy one bag to feed her two children. Without electricity, disconnected from her relatives and terrified by the sounds of warplanes overhead, she rushes in the afternoon to see her sick mother at a crowded U.N. shelter 20 minutes away.

There, she finally can charge her phone and check on her 66-year-old father who stubbornly stayed behind in their northern Gaza City home, refusing to heed Israeli evacuation orders.

Only two weeks ago, Abu Sharekh had a thriving life, working enthusiastically at a coveted new job and caring for her family.

“I feel either we were dreaming then or we are in a nightmare now,” she said. “Everyone was making plans, enjoying their lives the best they could. Suddenly we are wandering the streets without fuel to drive our cars, electricity, water or food. Homes are lost, people are being killed.”

It’s a view shared by many among Gaza’s tiny but budding middle class for whom hard-won progress despite Israel’s 16-year blockade and the slow erosion of Gaza’s state institutions was reversed in a matter of days. After Israel declared war following Hamas’ violent rampage across the border fence, their dreams of good jobs, attending foreign universities and buying homes were dashed.

Now when thinking about the future, many draw a blank, unable to imagine an existence beyond the daily fear of being killed in an airstrike. They include graphic designers seeking shelter in tents outside overcrowded U.N. facilities, architects living among dozens of other relatives and U.N. workers grappling with the destruction of their houses.

Before the war, an aspirational middle class had emerged from the rubble of earlier conflicts in Gaza. Despite the enduring blockade and severe limits on travel, they were able to invest in their children’s education, local businesses, even private beach-side bungalows and fancy eateries. Against the rising current of unemployment and precarious economic conditions, a small portion of society in Gaza managed to prosper.

Abu Sharekh graduated this summer with an engineering degree from Portland State University, in Oregon, as a Fulbright scholar. She returned home ecstatic to have landed a job with al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City and to be reunited with her family.

Within the span of a week starting Oct. 7, those hopes vanished as if crushed under the rubble of the flattened homes in her Gaza City neighborhood. Survival grew precarious. Her workplace became the scene of a horrific explosion.

Sharing a home with 70 other displaced relatives in a home in Khan Younis, Abu Sharekh said the day starts with anxiety about how to get bread to feed the many children there. Abu Sharekh’s two sons, ages 5 and 10, survive on canned beans. Water is rationed, just 300 millilitres (10 fluid ounces) per person every day. At night, their quarters are plunged into darkness.

Still, Abu Sharekh says it’s better than the overcrowded and dirty U.N. shelter at the Khan Younis Training Center, where her mother stays.

The shelter, housing nearly 11 times its designated capacity with nearly 20,000 people, is the most overcrowded among the 91 UNRWA installations where nearly half a million Gaza residents have sought refuge. Tents have cropped up outside, triggering painful memories of the mass displacement of the 1948 war with Israel, which Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe.

“It’s undignified,” Abu Sharekh says.

Men and women stand in line to use the same toilet facility. The wait is so long that fights break out. Garbage is piled outside. There is no steady supply of food or water.

Her mother, a cancer survivor, suffers from gastrointestinal issues and needs a toilet for two to three hours a day. That has been impossible in the shelter.

“It was heartbreaking, I was inside the shelter’s administration building, she was outside, and I was begging the man at the door just to let her in to use the toilet,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything for her to get in, I was so helpless, can you imagine?”

But her 63-year-old mother didn’t feel safe anywhere else, despite warnings from relatives that even U.N. shelters were not impervious to Israeli bombardment.

The U.N. reported nearly 180 internally displaced Palestinians at their facilities have been injured and 12 killed since the start of the war.

Abu Sharekh’s father, traumatized by tales of his parents’ displacement from their village in what is now the Israeli city of Ashkelon in 1948, was adamant history would not repeat itself, she said. “That was the main point for him,” she said.

He described an increasingly desperate situation in their Gaza City neighborhood: People breaking into homes looking for food and wandering the streets in search of supplies.

She fears he won’t pick up when she calls. Or that scrolling through social media, she will find her home among the several destroyed nearly every day. A strike damaged the home she shares with her husband and leveled the building her brother lived in.

“All my furniture, all my memories, windows, doors, everything is broken,” she said.

She didn’t want to leave, either. But her husband persuaded her, telling her at least the children should be spared the horror of airstrikes, and that they should stay together.

“But as we discovered, there are airstrikes everywhere.”

___

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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October 23, 2023
3 French airports forced to evacuate after security alerts

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PARIS — The Palace of Versailles and three airports in cities across France were evacuated for security reasons and temporarily closed Wednesday, the latest in a spate of evacuations in the past five days around France.

The former royal chateau of Versailles apologized to visitors for forcing them to evacuate from the sumptuous 17th-century palace “for security reasons.” The tourist attraction said on X, formerly Twitter, that it reopened hours later after checks. It was the third time since the weekend that the palace had to evacuate visitors.

Meanwhile three airports in the cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Lille received emailed threats Wednesday, police said, without elaborating on the nature of the threats. The airports all reopened to passengers and staff after security checks.

The evacuations were the latest in a series around France that included another popular tourist attraction, the Louvre Museum in Paris. They followed the killing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras on Friday by a suspected Islamist extremist. The threats have so far proved false.

The Louvre Museum and the Chateau of Versailles were both evacuated Saturday, and the former royal palace was again evacuated Tuesday.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran said that the multiple security alerts and evacuations must not grip France with fear.

“This is what the terrorists are waiting for, to terrorize us … We can be vigilant and I prefer to speak about a vigilant society,” Veran said in answer to a question after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

“Vigilance, yes. Fear, no,” he added. “And even less so terror, and not psychosis.”

Security alerts are evaluated on a case by case basis in coordination with the police, he added.

The prefecture for the Lyon region reminded the public that communicating false information can lead to prison and a heavy fine.

In the Riviera city of Nice, an abandoned piece of luggage also briefly disrupted operations at the airport.

The high school in Arras, where the teacher was murdered by a former student suspected to be an Islamist terrorist, was evacuated on Monday after a security alert, ahead of a moment of silence in schools across France.

It was not clear whether the spate of security threats was linked to the fatal stabbing of the teacher or whether France might be a victim of fallout from the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

France has heightened its threat alert level, allowing authorities to add 7,000 soldiers to the 3,000 already in French streets. They are tasked with guarding Jewish places of worship, schools, train stations and other sensitive areas.

The anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Tuesday that the suspect declared his allegiance to the so-called Islamic State group before the fatal stabbing.

—-

Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed.

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October 18, 2023
11 sent to hospital after ammonia leak at Southern California building

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An ammonia leak at a Southern California business has sent 11 people to the hospital

ByThe Associated Press

October 13, 2023, 9:22 PM

BUENA PARK, Calif. — An ammonia leak at a Southern California business sent 11 people to the hospital Friday morning, authorities said.

The leak was reported shortly before 9:15 a.m. in a commercial building in Buena Park, the Orange County Fire Authority said.

The building was evacuated and 12 people were decontaminated, with 11 being sent to hospitals where they were in stable condition, the fire authority said.

A hazardous materials team determined that the chemical released was ammonia, firefighters said.

Exposure to high levels of ammonia in the air can irritate the skin, eyes, throat and lungs and cause coughing and burns, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There was no immediate word on what caused the leak.

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October 13, 2023
The militant Hamas group in Gaza calls on Palestinians to stay in their homes after Israel orders mass evacuation

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The militant Hamas group in Gaza calls on Palestinians to stay in their homes after Israel orders mass evacuation

ByThe Associated Press

October 13, 2023, 2:23 AM

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The militant Hamas group in Gaza calls on Palestinians to stay in their homes after Israel orders mass evacuation.

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October 13, 2023
Israeli military says it will operate with ‘significant force’ in Gaza in the days ahead, urges civilians to evacuate

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Israeli military says it will operate with ‘significant force’ in Gaza in the days ahead, urges civilians to evacuate

ByThe Associated Press

October 13, 2023, 2:06 AM

JERUSALEM — Israeli military says it will operate with ‘significant force’ in Gaza in the days ahead, urges civilians to evacuate.

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October 13, 2023
Idaho officials briefly order evacuation of small town after gas line explodes

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Authorities briefly ordered evacuations for most of the town of Middleton, Idaho, after they said a gas pipeline exploded at a nearby rural intersection

ByThe Associated Press

October 12, 2023, 1:46 PM

MIDDLETON, Idaho — Authorities briefly ordered evacuations for most of the town of Middleton, Idaho, after they said a gas pipeline exploded at nearby rural intersection late Thursday morning.

The explosion happened when a worker using an excavator ruptured a 22-inch (56-centimeter) natural gas pipeline near the town of about 10,600 people, said Chief Deputy Douglas Hart of the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office. The excavator driver was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The ruptured line is part of an interstate pipeline that carries natural gas through several states in the northwestern U.S. owned by the Williams Companies, a natural gas distributor. The pipeline had about 750 pounds of pressure per square inch (53 kilograms per square centimeter), so authorities evacuated an area of about 4 square miles (10.4 square kilometers) surrounding the break, Hart said, including the entire town of Middleton.

In an emailed statement, the Williams Companies disputed the local officials’ characterization of what happened and said workers “implemented shutdown procedures” and coordinated with first responders.

“There was no ignition, fire, or explosion associated with this incident and the cause is under investigation,” the company said.

Within minutes of the incident, area residents began posting on social media that they had heard an explosion and continuing noise. Some described it like the sound of low-flying jets.

“It was a pretty substantial explosion just due to the pressure in that line,” said Chief David Jones of the Middleton Fire Department Battalion. “The explosion was felt, and the gas flow could be felt about a mile away.”

The evacuation order was lifted a short time later after the sheriff’s office confirmed the gas to the line had been shut off, and residents were directed to “shelter in place” instead.

Roads in the area remained closed until workers with the natural gas company could fully cap off the broken section.

Middleton is about 33 miles (53 kilometers) west of Boise, Idaho.

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October 12, 2023
A string of volcanic tremors raises fears of mass evacuations in Italy

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ROME — Hundreds of small tremors have shaken a densely populated volcanic area west of the Italian city of Naples in recent weeks, pushing the government to quickly redraft mass evacuation plans, even though experts don’t see an imminent risk of eruption.

In the latest of a long string of tremors, a 4.0-magnitude earthquake hit the region of Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) Monday. The region is home to a caldera, a cauldron-shaped depression left behind by the eruption of a very large volcano.

The one in Campi Flegri is the largest in Europe and last erupted in 1538. A new explosion would put half a million inhabitants at risk.

Monday’s tremor followed a 4.2-magnitude quake recorded last week, the strongest in the area for 40 years, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).

Experts at INGV have warned authorities and residents that tremors could intensify in the near future as seismic activity continues. However, they have clarified that the intensity of the tremors doesn’t imply an increased or imminent risk of a new eruption.

In a study published in June, a team of scientists at INGV raised the possibility that the caldera’s movements could rupture its crust. However, the study stressed there are currently no concrete reasons to anticipate a traditional volcanic eruption involving lava outflow.

’The seismic activity has been intensifying for months. We have observed over 3,000 tremors since the start of 2023,” Gianfilippo De Astis, senior researcher at INGV, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Only 65, however, were above a 2.0 magnitude.”

De Astis noted that these phenomena in the Campi Flegrei area – known as “bradyseism” — have been going on for thousands of years, involving a “cyclical process of rising and falling of the level of ground,” which has been widely observed and measured.

The Campi Flegrei area extends west from the outskirts of Naples to the Tyrrhenian Sea. About a third is partially submerged beneath the Bay of Pozzuoli, while the remaining two-thirds are home to about 400,000 people.

The city of Naples is surrounded by volcanoes on both sides: Campi Flegrei to the west, and Mount Vesuvius to the east. Vesuvius is known around the world for having destroyed the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum when it erupted in 79 AD.

The recent string of tremors caused no damage or injuries, but raised fresh worries over the impact of an emergency evacuation of thousands of people, putting pressure on local authorities and the far-right government headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni.

Experts have advised Naples city council to conduct safety checks on hospitals, schools and public buildings.

Civil protection minister Nello Musumeci said on Tuesday that the government has accelerated the drafting of “exodus plans in the event of an emergency,” which should be discussed at the next cabinet meeting.

According to the evacuation plans in place, once the alert level has been reached, hundreds of thousands of people living in the most dangerous areas are to be transferred to other Italian regions.

But, in a 2022 study published by the National Research Council (CNR), a group of economists estimated that an immediate evacuation of the whole Campi Flegrei area – as described by the emergency plans — would cost about 30 billion euros a year, with a negative impact on Italy’s gross domestic product of around 1%.

The risk of a volcanic eruption in the whole Southern Campania region – which includes Naples – would affect about three million people, situated in an area of about 15-20 kilometers from a possible eruption, the study says.

“No doubt that the plans need to be updated, but that’s a complex issue,” De Astis said in a telephone interview. “For sure, escape routes have to be enlarged to allow a quicker exodus. The government should definitely act on the infrastructure side.”

But the “psychological factors” are much more unpredictable, he added.

“We have historical experiences of eruptions where citizens refused to leave their homes and preferred to stay and eventually die there. What are we supposed to do in that case?”

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October 3, 2023
A string of volcanic tremors raises fears of mass evacuations in Italy

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ROME — Hundreds of small tremors have shaken a densely populated volcanic area west of the Italian city of Naples in recent weeks, pushing the government to quickly redraft mass evacuation plans, even though experts don’t see an imminent risk of eruption.

In the latest of a long string of tremors, a 4.0-magnitude earthquake hit the region of Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) Monday. The region is home to a caldera, a cauldron-shaped depression left behind by the eruption of a very large volcano.

The one in Campi Flegri is the largest in Europe and last erupted in 1538. A new explosion would put half a million inhabitants at risk.

Monday’s tremor followed a 4.2-magnitude quake recorded last week, the strongest in the area for 40 years, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).

Experts at INGV have warned authorities and residents that tremors could intensify in the near future as seismic activity continues. However, they have clarified that the intensity of the tremors doesn’t imply an increased or imminent risk of a new eruption.

In a study published in June, a team of scientists at INGV raised the possibility that the caldera’s movements could rupture its crust. However, the study stressed there are currently no concrete reasons to anticipate a traditional volcanic eruption involving lava outflow.

’The seismic activity has been intensifying for months. We have observed over 3,000 tremors since the start of 2023,” Gianfilippo De Astis, senior researcher at INGV, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Only 65, however, were above a 2.0 magnitude.”

De Astis noted that these phenomena in the Campi Flegrei area – known as “bradyseism” — have been going on for thousands of years, involving a “cyclical process of rising and falling of the level of ground,” which has been widely observed and measured.

The Campi Flegrei area extends west from the outskirts of Naples to the Tyrrhenian Sea. About a third is partially submerged beneath the Bay of Pozzuoli, while the remaining two-thirds are home to about 400,000 people.

The city of Naples is surrounded by volcanoes on both sides: Campi Flegrei to the west, and Mount Vesuvius to the east. Vesuvius is known around the world for having destroyed the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum when it erupted in 79 AD.

The recent string of tremors caused no damage or injuries, but raised fresh worries over the impact of an emergency evacuation of thousands of people, putting pressure on local authorities and the far-right government headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni.

Experts have advised Naples city council to conduct safety checks on hospitals, schools and public buildings.

Civil protection minister Nello Musumeci said on Tuesday that the government has accelerated the drafting of “exodus plans in the event of an emergency,” which should be discussed at the next cabinet meeting.

According to the evacuation plans in place, once the alert level has been reached, hundreds of thousands of people living in the most dangerous areas are to be transferred to other Italian regions.

But, in a 2022 study published by the National Research Council (CNR), a group of economists estimated that an immediate evacuation of the whole Campi Flegrei area – as described by the emergency plans — would cost about 30 billion euros a year, with a negative impact on Italy’s gross domestic product of around 1%.

The risk of a volcanic eruption in the whole Southern Campania region – which includes Naples – would affect about three million people, situated in an area of about 15-20 kilometers from a possible eruption, the study says.

“No doubt that the plans need to be updated, but that’s a complex issue,” De Astis said in a telephone interview. “For sure, escape routes have to be enlarged to allow a quicker exodus. The government should definitely act on the infrastructure side.”

But the “psychological factors” are much more unpredictable, he added.

“We have historical experiences of eruptions where citizens refused to leave their homes and preferred to stay and eventually die there. What are we supposed to do in that case?”

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October 3, 2023
Illinois semitruck accident kills 1, injures 5 and prompts ammonia leak evacuation

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TEUTOPOLIS, Ill. — A semitruck carrying a toxic substance overturned in Illinois, causing “multiple fatalities” and dangerous air conditions that prompted the evacuation of area residents, authorities said Saturday.

Firefighters, police and other emergency responders converged on the scene late Friday near Teutopolis and were still on the scene Saturday to try to contain the cloud of anhydrous ammonia that emanated from the overturned tanker.

“We have a lot of brave firemen, EMT, hazmat specialists, police officers that are working on this scene as we speak,” Effingham County Sheriff Paul Kuhns said at a Saturday press conference.

Authorities did not say exactly how many people were killed or injured.

“I am sorry to say that we do have multiple fatalities,” Kuhns said. “And I’m sorry to say I don’t have that exact number for you.”

Illinois State Police spokesperson Melaney Arnold said authorities initially thought there were five fatalities, but that turned out to be a premature determination amid the early confusion.

The accident caused “a large plume, cloud of anhydrous ammonia on the roadway that caused terribly dangerous air conditions in the northeast area of Teutopolis,” Kuhns said. “Because of these conditions, the emergency responders had to wait. They had to mitigate the conditions before they could really get to work on it, and it was a fairly large area.”

The accident, which involved “multiple” vehicles including the tanker, happened about a half-mile east of Teutopolis on U.S. Highway 40 on Friday at about 9:25 p.m., Illinois State Police said in an emailed statement.

Tim McMahon, chief of the Teutopolis Fire Protection District, said the tanker began leaking after rolling over in a ditch. He said authorities are still preventing cars from driving in that area.

Kuhns said he did not have information on whether the deaths were the result of the crash itself or the chemical leak. But he said that “the accident scene was large.”

He apologized for any inconvenience that is resulting from the investigation and the evacuation.

“I understand how frustrating that would be to not be allowed to travel or to go back home, but we really need to focus our resources on the spill and on the situation, so if people can have as much patience, that’s what I would ask for,” Kuhns said

There was an earlier accident on Interstate 70 on Friday, and authorities had detoured traffic onto U.S. Highway 40, including the tanker.

Anhydrous ammonia is toxic and can be a health hazard if safe handling procedures are not followed. Effects of inhalation of anhydrous ammonia range from lung irritation to severe respiratory injuries, with possible death at higher concentrations. Anhydrous ammonia is also corrosive and can burn the skin and eyes.

Teutopolis is about 92 miles (148 kilometers) southeast of Springfield, the capital of Illinois.

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September 30, 2023
Railyard explosion in Nebraska isn’t expected to create any lingering problems, authorities say

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OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska authorities said they don’t expect any lingering problems related to Thursday’s explosion of a railroad shipping container carrying an acid used to make explosives because the chemical largely burned off and any residue was contained at the scene.

No one was injured in the blast at Union Pacific’s massive railyard in North Platte, and no structures were damaged. A precautionary evacuation of a one-mile area right around the fire only involved a few farmsteads for several hours because the fire happened in the west end of the railyard near the edge of town. The fire didn’t even spread beyond the shipping container on top of the one that exploded to the rest of the parked train.

North Platte Fire Chief Dennis Thompson said Friday this was the best-case scenario for an incident like this because of its isolated location and the quick response from his hazardous materials team and other agencies, including the railroad’s own experts. A team from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency that happened to be passing through the area on the way to a training session in Western Nebraska even stopped to offer their expertise.

“Especially when we look at some of the incidents that we’ve seen recently around the country, this just couldn’t have gone any better,” Thomson said. “When we leave these things with no injuries or significant damage or loss of equipment or anything, or environmental impact, it’s a win by all means.”

Any railroad incident these days brings to mind the fiery Norfolk Southern derailment that happened in eastern Ohio back in February. That crash prompted a national reckoning on rail safety and a massive cleanup effort that continues in East Palestine, Ohio. But Thursday’s incident in the Union Pacific railyard was nothing like that.

The perchloric acid inside the container that exploded, which is used to make explosives as well as a variety of food and drug products, dissipated in the air as it burned off, Thompson said. And air and soil monitoring in the area never showed any dangerous levels.

He said the other container that burned in the fire likely contained memory foam — not another hazardous chemical.

Investigators from the state Fire Marshal’s office and the railroad are working to determine the cause of the blast.

Union Pacific was able to continue operating part of the railyard throughout the incident, and full operations resumed after the fire was extinguished Thursday evening.

The head of the Federal Railroad Administration did recently say that inspectors found an alarming number of defects among the freight cars and locomotives in use at the North Platte railyard, which is the world’s largest, during an inspection this summer. But there’ wasn’t any immediate indication that Thursday’s explosion were linked to those defects.

Agency spokesman Warren Flatau said Friday the FRA is conducting a full investigation to determine what happened and whether any of the work being done moving other railcars nearby contributed to the explosion.

North Platte is a city of about 23,000 people located about 230 miles (370 kilometers) east of Denver and about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Omaha.

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September 15, 2023
Explosion at world’s largest railyard in Nebraska prompts evacuations because of heavy toxic smoke

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OMAHA, Neb. — An explosion inside a shipping container at the world’s largest railyard prompted evacuations in western Nebraska Thursday because of the toxic smoke generated when one of the chemicals aboard caught fire.

Around noon, an explosion occurred inside an intermodal container on a railcar at Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard in North Platte, though it wasn’t clear what caused the explosion, railroad spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said. No one was injured, and no cars derailed.

Authorities evacuated everyone within a one-mile radius of the explosion in the western end of the railyard because of the smoke, and U.S. Highway 30 was closed between North Platte and Hershey. Interstate 80 wasn’t affected by the smoke. It wasn’t immediately clear how many homes were included in the mostly rural area that was evacuated on the edge of the city. North Platte, which is about 230 miles (370 kilometers) east of Denver and about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Omaha, has a population of about 23,000.

The railroad said the fire had been extinguished by 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Earlier, the North Platte Fire Department said in a in a post on X the evacuations were done because of the fire at the railyard involved “heavy toxic smoke.” Fire officials didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking more details.

One of the containers involved was carrying perchloric acid, which is used in explosives as well as a variety of food and drug products, Tysver said. The car that exploded had been stationary for a couple hours beforehand, authorities said.

Joanna Le Moine, deputy director of the Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency, said officials are monitoring the situation and the weather to determine which direction the smoke will go “to help keep responders and citizens safe out of an overabundance of caution.”

The railyard where the explosion happened covers 2,850 acres (1,153 hectares) and stretches as wide as eight miles (13 km) at one point. A few years ago, an eight-story tall observation tower was built to allow people to watch thousands of railcars be sorted from one train to another on Union Pacific’s key east-west corridor.

One of the volunteers who was working inside the Golden Spike Tower Thursday told the North Platte Telegraph newspaper that he saw a “big ball of flame” billow up while he was talking to someone.

“And then it was just fire, fire, fire, constant for 10, 12 minutes maybe. And then the fire went down and smoke kind of increased, and then it was just sparks coming out,” Gregg Robertson told the newspaper.

Two plumes of smoke rose from the blast site, Robertson said. “The east plume was like black smoke. The west plume was orange smoke, something like I’ve not seen from a fire,” he said.

Railroad officials said that because the explosion happened near the western end of the railyard and the prevailing winds were carrying the toxic smoke outside the railroad, Union Pacific was able to continue operating part of the facility and keep trains moving. Once the fire was extinguished Thursday evening, Union Pacific was able to resume use of the entire railyard, spokeswoman Kristen South said.

Railroad safety has been a key concern nationwide ever since a Norfolk Southern train derailed and caught fire in eastern Ohio. That derailment prompted evacuations and calls for reform from members of Congress and regulators.

The National Transportation Safety Board is monitoring the situation but hasn’t started an investigation, agency spokeswoman Sarah Taylor Sulick said.

Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau said officials from that agency are at the railyard monitoring Union Pacific’s response to the explosion.

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September 14, 2023
An evacuation order finds few followers in northeast Ukraine despite Russia’s push to retake region

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KUPIANSK, Ukraine — The thunder of mortar fire echoes in the distance as 5-year old David approaches his mother with an innocent request: Can he play with the baseball bat a relative gave him as a gift?

Valeria Pototska rolls her eyes and tells her son no for the umpteenth time. It’s a toy for big kids, she scolds. The boy, who doesn’t so much as flinch when the weapons not far from their town in northeast Ukraine shoot off more rounds, pouts and peddles away on his bicycle.

Other neighborhood children frolic in a playground in Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, seemingly immune to the war unfolding 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away. Ukrainian authorities this month ordered a mandatory evacuation of the village and three dozen other populated areas as war returned to Kharkiv province. So far, most residents have refused to go as the battle inches closer to their backyards.

“It’s normal,” Pototska said of the soundtrack of weapons that punctuates the monotony of their daily lives. Olena Kanivets, a friend sitting beside her, nods and takes a drag on a cigarette. “It’s the strong who took the decision to leave,” Kanivets said.

The Aug. 10 evacuation directive applies to 37 settlements that Russian soldiers occupied early in the 18-month-old war. A Ukrainian counteroffensive liberated them in September, lifting the invaded country’s spirits. Citing a Russian attempt to push back into the area, the Kupiansk district military administration told roughly 12,000 residents to seek safety elsewhere.

Only a few hundred have heeded the warning. Among the thousands who haven’t, some are paralyzed by the daunting task of relocating. Others said they had considered the hardships of displacement and decided to brave the renewed hostilities instead. Many signed documents stating they were staying at their own risk.

Their reasons range from the existential to the routine: fear of encountering poverty and loneliness in expensive faraway cities. Reluctance to give up homes in which they invested their life savings for a crowded shelter. Needing more time to tidy the garden or to tend to livestock.

The city of Kupiansk, which also was occupied by the Russians for more than six months last year, is under a partial evacuation order now. Katarina Chesta, a school administrator there, said she plans to stay put even if the order is extended citywide because she is tired of running away from war.

When Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, Chesta fled the port city of Mariupol under fire and ended up in Kupiansk, where her parents lived. The 39-year-old refuses to pack up and move again.

Russian air strikes frequently target Kupiansk and hit the city’s main school building in October and December, so Chesta is preparing an online curriculum for the new academic year.

“Maybe it’s just the way I am,” she said, sitting in her office wearing an immaculate white dress and her hair styled in an elegant updo. “Some people must stay here to be patriots for the city, to develop it, to survive.”

Kharkiv province, which borders Russia, reemerged as a combat hot spot in mid-July. That’s when the Russian military began assembling assault troops, tank units and other resources in the direction of Kupiansk, hoping to pressure Ukrainian troops fighting further south and to recapture the territory Ukraine won back, according to Ukrainian military officials.

Ukrainian military officials say their forces have kept the Russians from advancing but there is intense fighting on the outskirts of Synkivka, a village which is 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) from Kupiansk.

Illustrating the dangers for the local population, they said Russian units have shelled civilian infrastructure and homes while hunting for Ukrainian soldiers, who fight concealed in the wooded and agricultural landscape. The near-constant shelling kills several residents a week, according to the Kupiansk military administration.

Evacuated residents are taken to a shelter in Kharkiv, the provincial capital and Ukraine’s second-largest city. Red Cross volunteers say the number requesting to relocate spiked in places that received more intense bombing, but many locals still linger.

“Until the moment shelling hits close, people refuse to leave,” volunteer Volodymyr Fedulenko said.

For Oleksandr Ivanovich, 70, that moment came when a shell hit his house in the village of Hryshivka and left the roof in tatters. He was plucking weeds from the front porch at the time. “What to say, it is very painful to leave my home,” Ivanovich said.

Tatiyana Shapavalova, 59, who lives two doors away, boarded an evacuation van along with her neighbor. She thought their part of Ukraine would stay comparatively peaceful after the Russians withdrew from most of Kharkiv province last year, but the Aug. 13 artillery attack proved her wrong.

“We had hoped the Ukrainian army would push the Russians further away, but every day we hear them coming closer and closer,” Shapavalova said.

Liudmyla Yermyichuk, a resident of the village of Kivsharivka, asked to be evacuated with her 84-year old mother. Her sister decided to stay behind. “They are planning to clean their garden, and then they will maybe go to Kharkiv,” she said, from the Red Cross base in Kupiansk.

In the villages closet to the front line, residents have told volunteer Fedulenko they don’t want to abandon their farm animals. They spend most of their time in basement shelters below razed houses, he said.

“I have to tell them, ‘Your life is more important than your chickens,’” he said.

In Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi. the long war has created an atmosphere that blends the placid and the deadly. The roar of artillery fire sporadically disturbs the soft rustle of leaves in the late summer breeze. Municipal workers diligently mow the lawn next to bombed-out school buildings.

Residents who lived under occupation for half a year said the experience was terrifying. “Russians acted like kings,” Pototska said. Many said they would evacuate if the return of Moscow’s troops appeared imminent but until then hold on to hope of Ukrainian forces defeating them.

Kanivets, Pototska’s friend, sent her 12-year-old son, Yaroslav, to a 10-day summer camp in western Ukraine “to give him a break” from the shelling. The war forced him to grow up very quickly but “he has friends here, it’s his home, so I think its better to stay,” she said. “He’s not scared.”

“Old man,” Kanivets said affectionately of her child.

Four months ago, Nataliia Rosolova’s son Dmytro, 14, begged her to leave after a night of heavy shelling. “We need to stay for a while longer,” she told him.

Rosolova, 38, recalled the conversation as an an air raid alarm rang out in their neighborhood. She explained that she works as a medic and “there are very few of us left here.” As she spoke, her younger son’s toys are strewn in a backyard sandbox. The sound of projectile landing somewhere booms.

If a time comes when the family must flee, their bags are packed and ready to grab from Dmytro’s bedroom.

“Maybe I’m not strong enough to make such difficult decisions,” the mother said, tears welling in her eyes. “But I’m not an enemy for my children. If there will be a need to leave, we will leave.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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August 28, 2023
Louisiana refinery fire mostly contained but residents worry about air quality

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Crews in Louisiana were still working to suppress flare-ups as an oil refinery fire burned for a second day along the banks of the Mississippi River

Smoke billows from a tank fire at the Marathon Petroleum facility in Garyville, La., Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Garyville is located about 40 miles up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. (Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

The Associated Press

GARYVILLE, La. — Crews were still working to suppress flare-ups Saturday as a fire at a Louisiana oil refinery burned for a second day along the banks of the Mississippi River, while residents worried about health effects from the fumes and black smoke.

Tests have so far found “non-detectable air quality impacts” from Friday’s massive fire, Marathon Patroleum said in a emailed statement Saturday. The state Department of Environmental Quality and a third-party contractor were conducing the tests.

The company said two people were injured and 10 others evaluated for heat stress. The fire damaged two giant storage tanks for naphtha, a component in the production of gasoline and jet fuels.

On Friday, orange flames belched a column of thick smoke over the facility in Garyville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans, forcing residents of the mostly rural area to evacuate within a 2-mile (3-kilometer) radius.

“You look outside your house and the sky is black,” Hilary Cambre, who lives right next to the refinery, told WWL-TV on Friday. He and other residents said they felt nauseous, dizzy and had headaches.

People with respiratory conditions should avoid going outdoors if they live near the facility, Dr. Rustin Reed with Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine told the television station.

Some schools locked down Friday and two nearby schools served as evacuation centers, the station reported. One resident described police officers driving around with loudspeakers alerting people to the mandatory evacuation.

The cause of the fire will be investigated, the company said.

People who’ve been affected by the fire and need assistance can call the company’s toll-free hotline at 866-601-5880.

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August 26, 2023
Louisiana refinery fire mostly contained but residents worry about air quality

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Crews in Louisiana were still working to suppress flare-ups as an oil refinery fire burned for a second day along the banks of the Mississippi River

Smoke billows from a tank fire at the Marathon Petroleum facility in Garyville, La., Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. Garyville is located about 40 miles up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. (Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

The Associated Press

GARYVILLE, La. — Crews were still working to suppress flare-ups Saturday as a fire at a Louisiana oil refinery burned for a second day along the banks of the Mississippi River, while residents worried about health effects from the fumes and black smoke.

Tests have so far found “non-detectable air quality impacts” from Friday’s massive fire, Marathon Patroleum said in a emailed statement Saturday. The state Department of Environmental Quality and a third-party contractor were conducing the tests.

The company said two people were injured and 10 others evaluated for heat stress. The fire damaged two giant storage tanks for naphtha, a component in the production of gasoline and jet fuels.

On Friday, orange flames belched a column of thick smoke over the facility in Garyville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans, forcing residents of the mostly rural area to evacuate within a 2-mile (3-kilometer) radius.

“You look outside your house and the sky is black,” Hilary Cambre, who lives right next to the refinery, told WWL-TV on Friday. He and other residents said they felt nauseous, dizzy and had headaches.

People with respiratory conditions should avoid going outdoors if they live near the facility, Dr. Rustin Reed with Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine told the television station.

Some schools locked down Friday and two nearby schools served as evacuation centers, the station reported. One resident described police officers driving around with loudspeakers alerting people to the mandatory evacuation.

The cause of the fire will be investigated, the company said.

People who’ve been affected by the fire and need assistance can call the company’s toll-free hotline at 866-601-5880.

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August 26, 2023
Hundreds of patients evacuated from Los Angeles hospital building that lost power in storm’s wake

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The Los Angeles Fire Department says a succession of power outages at a hospital prompted the evacuation of 28 patients in critical condition to other facilities

Los Angeles Fire Department personnel gather at the Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. A succession of power outages at a Los Angeles hospital prompted the evacuation of 28 patients in critical condition to other hospitals early Tuesday, while 213 other patients were moved to another building in the medical center, authorities said. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A succession of power outages at a Los Angeles hospital prompted the evacuation of 28 patients in critical condition to other hospitals early Tuesday, while 213 other patients were moved to another building in the medical center, authorities said.

The power failure blacked out Adventist Health White Memorial’s main six-story building, disabling elevators, said Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley. More than 100 firefighters and numerous ambulances were dispatched to the facility east of downtown.

The building includes OB-GYN and neonatal intensive care, Crowley said.

“All patients are safe,” John Raffoul, the hospital president, said at a press conference.

Fire personnel remained at the hospital during the day.

Mayor Karen Bass called for a thorough examination of the incident.

“We must get to the bottom of what happened and ensure that lives are not put at risk in this way ever again,” Bass said in a statement. “Many years ago, I worked at White Memorial in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. A power outage risks the lives of all of those babies — and also the rest of the patients in critical care whose lives depend on respirators, ventilators and other critical life-sustaining equipment.”

The hospital originally lost power at 3 a.m. Monday after Tropical Storm Hilary dumped record rainfall on the city, and backup generators that were supposed to last three days kicked in, Raffoul said.

But a blackout was reported at 11:45 p.m. Monday and firefighters were dispatched to evacuate patients, assisting them down flights of stairs in many cases, the Fire Department said.

“We don’t know the cause of the double failure that we had here … other than the fact that we had a major storm that hit us here in Southern California,” Raffoul said.

According to Raffoul, the generators were purchased in 2008 at the time the hospital was built, and they have been regularly tested since, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Raffoul said a new generator was on order.

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August 22, 2023
More villages evacuated as a large wildfire in northern Greece rages for the second day

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THESSALONIKI, Greece — Greek authorities evacuated another five villages near the northeastern border with Turkey on Sunday where a large summer wildfire that has already destroyed several homes over the weekend drew dangerously close.

There were no reports of serious injuries to firefighters or residents from the forest blaze near the town of Alexandroupolis, that forced the evacuation of another eight villages Saturday.

Strong winds whipped on the flames, and civil protection authorities warned of an “extreme” fire risk Monday in the region around the capital, Athens, and other parts of southern Greece.

Some 200 firefighters, assisted by 16 water-dropping aircraft, volunteers and police, were battling the blaze near Alexandroupolis.

Local authorities said about half a dozen outlying houses and outbuildings were badly damaged in two of the evacuated villages, as well as a church. Sections of a major highway were closed for a second day as smoke reduced visibility, while Alexandroupolis residents were advised to keep their windows shut.

Greece’s minister for civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said Sunday that firefighters, police, army personnel and volunteers were “waging an intense battle” in the Alexandroupolis area, and called for extreme public vigilance throughout the country Monday.

“No outdoors work that could trigger a fire will be permitted,” he said. “We must all protect our country.”

Across the border in Turkey, the governor of Erdine province declared Sunday that the border crossing at Ipsala had been closed until further notice due to the fires.

Greece suffers destructive wildfires every summer, which officials said have been exacerbated by climate change. European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.

The deadliest Greek wildfire on record killed 104 people in 2018, in a seaside resort near Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Since then, authorities have been erring on the side of caution, issuing swift mass evacuation orders whenever inhabited areas are under threat.

Last month a large wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. Another three wildfire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.

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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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August 20, 2023